james100
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Post by james100 on May 25, 2022 11:04:31 GMT
So, the Sue Gray report is out. I've skim read half now taking a break to contemplate how dull my social life is compared to BJs. Not sure it's exactly "amusing" but by God they had a good COVID at number 10 🥳. We're talking drink-till-you-throw-up, karaoke machine-fuelled fist-fighting-fun until 3am on a week night stuff here...all laid out in black and white alongside Sue's dry commentary. Worth a few moments of anyone's time today for sure.
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bernythedolt
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Post by bernythedolt on May 26, 2022 0:15:21 GMT
Providing a karaoke machine is the real killer here. There is just no way to bury that as a simple workplace meeting that happened to have a side table of cheese & wine refreshments. Whoops!  |
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agent69
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Post by agent69 on May 27, 2022 8:23:43 GMT
Not amusing but unusual
A BA A380 flying from San Francisco to London made an emergency landing in Chicago. The reason for the unplanned stop was a failure in the hold heating system which endangered the lives of two dogs travelling in the hold.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on May 27, 2022 9:23:27 GMT
So, the Sue Gray report is out. I've skim read half now taking a break to contemplate how dull my social life is compared to BJs. Not sure it's exactly "amusing" but by God they had a good COVID at number 10 🥳. We're talking drink-till-you-throw-up, karaoke machine-fuelled fist-fighting-fun until 3am on a week night stuff here...all laid out in black and white alongside Sue's dry commentary. Worth a few moments of anyone's time today for sure. One does need to remember that over 1000 civil service staff "work" at number 10 which despite looking small actually has over 100 rooms. These are not all picked by Boris etc they just work for whoever is in government. I honestly don't think this culture has developed since Boris took over, I think it's ingrained ( I'm not saying Boris shouldn't have clamped down ) I worked in Local Government for many years this civil service culture is similar to what I experienced early on, and according to acquaintances who still work in local government is still a very prevalent culture in the south east. and as to the not abiding by social distancing I saw gatherings happening in houses near mine throughout the pandemic, even during the first and toughest lockdown I would see people visiting each other on a daily basis, and yes it aggrieved me when I tried to abide by the rules.
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adrianc
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Post by adrianc on May 27, 2022 9:43:39 GMT
I honestly don't think this culture has developed since Boris took over, I think it's ingrained ( I'm not saying Boris shouldn't have clamped down ) Do you think it'd have happened under Theresa May? I really, really don't.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on May 27, 2022 9:56:36 GMT
My honest belief is that this has been going on many years.
I couldn't see Maggie standing for it but since then I really don't think we've had a PM with the balls to stand up to the civil service mandarins.
I see Theresa May as one in a line of weak leaders.
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registerme
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Post by registerme on May 27, 2022 11:51:16 GMT
My honest belief is that this has been going on many years. I couldn't see Maggie standing for it but since then I really don't think we've had a PM with the balls to stand up to the civil service mandarins. I see Theresa May as one in a line of weak leaders. But the point, surely, is not that there's a drinking / party culture, but that it was allowed to continue whilst the rest of the country was (or at least should have been) observing lockdown rules.
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keitha
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Post by keitha on May 27, 2022 11:58:10 GMT
I'm not defending Boris per se, but perhaps he trusted senior staff to ensure others stuck to the rules.
As someone who has regularly voted tory I can say I am considering my position as I'm disgusted it happened.
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james100
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Post by james100 on May 27, 2022 12:15:16 GMT
So, the Sue Gray report is out. I've skim read half now taking a break to contemplate how dull my social life is compared to BJs. Not sure it's exactly "amusing" but by God they had a good COVID at number 10 🥳. We're talking drink-till-you-throw-up, karaoke machine-fuelled fist-fighting-fun until 3am on a week night stuff here...all laid out in black and white alongside Sue's dry commentary. Worth a few moments of anyone's time today for sure. One does need to remember that over 1000 civil service staff "work" at number 10 which despite looking small actually has over 100 rooms. These are not all picked by Boris etc they just work for whoever is in government. I honestly don't think this culture has developed since Boris took over, I think it's ingrained ( I'm not saying Boris shouldn't have clamped down ) I worked in Local Government for many years this civil service culture is similar to what I experienced early on, and according to acquaintances who still work in local government is still a very prevalent culture in the south east. and as to the not abiding by social distancing I saw gatherings happening in houses near mine throughout the pandemic, even during the first and toughest lockdown I would see people visiting each other on a daily basis, and yes it aggrieved me when I tried to abide by the rules. I hear you. And I do agree up to a point....but that point is, for me, the absolute chasm between "do as I say" and "do as I do" exhibited by the uppermost layers of our political system. Whilst Number 10 was partying like it was the Hacienda circa 1990, my county's police force hit headlines by tweeting that they would be checking shopping trolleys for non-essential items and *drum roll* "taking appropriate action". If I'd been denied access to a dying relative or their funeral I'd be apoplectic.
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james100
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Post by james100 on May 27, 2022 12:31:22 GMT
I'm not defending Boris per se, but perhaps he trusted senior staff to ensure others stuck to the rules. As someone who has regularly voted tory I can say I am considering my position as I'm disgusted it happened. He's the boss. He's the single person accountable. It's his job to lead and ensure compliance of rules he signs off (and preaches to the nation) is followed through his organisation. And here he is...I can only assume the biscuits left on that plate are jammy dodgers. I have just lost a really good and hard working local Tory Councillor as direct fallout from this. Having delivered for many years, they've been replaced by someone with little to no experience simply because they are not a Tory. Nobody wins. 
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ptr120
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Post by ptr120 on May 27, 2022 12:39:29 GMT
I'm not defending Boris per se, but perhaps he trusted senior staff to ensure others stuck to the rules. As someone who has regularly voted tory I can say I am considering my position as I'm disgusted it happened. He's the boss. He's the single person accountable. It's his job to lead and ensure compliance of rules he signs off (and preaches to the nation) is followed through his organisation. And here he is...I can only assume the biscuits left on that plate are jammy dodgers. I have just lost a really good and hard working local Tory Councillor as direct fallout from this. Having delivered for many years, they've been replaced by someone with little to no experience simply because they are not a Tory. Nobody wins. <button disabled="" class="c-attachment-insert--linked o-btn--sm">Attachment Deleted</button> I think you've actually lost your really god hard working local Tory Councillor as a result of our electoral system, which the Tory parts don't want to change. If we had some form of PR which would make every vote count, there is a good chance that a good councillor would have kept their seat.
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registerme
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Post by registerme on May 27, 2022 12:40:46 GMT
I have just lost a really good and hard working local Tory Councillor as direct fallout from this. Having delivered for many years, they've been replaced by someone with little to no experience simply because they are not a Tory. Nobody wins. Yes, the local councillor for my ward was a Tory, and he was very good at his job. He was one of three non-Labour councillors in Lambeth, where Labour hold 57 seats. Labour absolutely need to be challenged (the local council is rubbish). But I couldn't bring myself to vote for the incumbent Tory because I didn't feel I could do anything that might be perceived as being supportive of Johnson and his government. He lost his seat (thankfully to a Lib Dem so at least it wasn't yet another Labour councillor).
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Post by bracknellboy on May 27, 2022 12:46:49 GMT
One does need to remember that over 1000 civil service staff "work" at number 10 which despite looking small actually has over 100 rooms. These are not all picked by Boris etc they just work for whoever is in government. I honestly don't think this culture has developed since Boris took over, I think it's ingrained ( I'm not saying Boris shouldn't have clamped down ) I worked in Local Government for many years this civil service culture is similar to what I experienced early on, and according to acquaintances who still work in local government is still a very prevalent culture in the south east. and as to the not abiding by social distancing I saw gatherings happening in houses near mine throughout the pandemic, even during the first and toughest lockdown I would see people visiting each other on a daily basis, and yes it aggrieved me when I tried to abide by the rules. I hear you. And I do agree up to a point....but that point is, for me, the absolute chasm between "do as I say" and "do as I do" exhibited by the uppermost layers of our political system. Whilst Number 10 was partying like it was the Hacienda circa 1990, my county's police force hit headlines by tweeting that they would be checking shopping trolleys for non-essential items and *drum roll* "taking appropriate action". If I'd been denied access to a dying relative or their funeral I'd be apoplectic. We did have my wife's uncle's funeral during lockdown. Thankfully there could be some of us there, but others - his children - were FaceTimed in from Australia (OK that was a function of travel restrictions Australia end, but that isn't the point); my mother in law too concerned about travelling and mingling to see be at her brother's funeral; no ability to have any form of wake afterwards. We were lucky, this was later on when you could at least have a family funeral. But its not just funerals. Nearly all of us didn't see elderly parents for months in order to comply with restrictions, help stop spread, and protect our parents. Or left long term jobs without having any form of send off except by zoom. Yet it was OK for the privileged self serving s**heads at the centre of power to willfully ignore restrictions and have a series of piss-ups or other gatherings on the pretence they - who made the bloody rules - didn't know it was against the letter let alone the spirit of them. To have that level of utter contempt for others and sense of privilege at the centre of government is despicable and they deserve nothing but our contempt. EDIT: And to add to that: let alone the contempt it shows for those in the medical profession who were working their a***s off in dangerous situation, maybe not seeing their partners / children to protect them, and then told that of course having a piss-up in no 10 was no different from what many of them were doing after long draining shifts. WT* ?
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2022 14:08:57 GMT
behaviour comes from the top.
Boris showed a considerable weakness as Mayor of London, Foreign Secretary, as a Journalist, husband, father, and now as PM. Why anyone, least of all members of the conservative party are surprised by this is beyond me.
The issues are. 0) After underpaying MPs for years the commons has got the usual bunch of grafters, liars and unemployable leading to serious contenders being countable on one hand
1) The labour party got lost in the wilderness and is only just struggling out of the sow of despond with an extremely boring but basically honest leader 2) The liberal party has a leader but goodness know who he is
3) The conservative party, having absorbed the numbskuls from the Breaksit party has a very limited range of competent possibles and far too many nitwits of which amongst the senior members only the chancellor actually has any competence (as an accountant  ) while most of the rest are jolly people you would meet in the pub but not give a corner shop to run. Once you tick off the FS, HS as complete morons you begin to realise that there is no talent in depth.
I suggest halve the members and double the salary and you might get someone useful. Who would get out of bed, risk death by samuri sword and have to work in central London for £85k?
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a0010402
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Post by a0010402 on May 27, 2022 14:35:18 GMT
I would have supported Dominic Grieve as PM because he's a man of great intelligence and integrity and I used to admire him and attentively listen to his every speech. And yet, look what happened to him. Some others that were made to leave the scene at the time would also have been good. Does anyone need any more proof that this is a crooked government?
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) while most of the rest are jolly people you would meet in the pub but not give a corner shop to run. Once you tick off the FS, HS as complete morons you begin to realise that there is no talent in depth.